Heddle



Nov. 14, 1950 J. J. KAUFMANN HEDDLE Filed NOV. 16, 1946 HHllhl 4 M o, 2 8 67 Y w f, f/, U0 nu L f J k/ V0 .0f H

4 Trae/wy Patented Nov.. 14, 1950 HEDDLE John Jacob Kaufmann, Elkins Park, Pa., assigner to Steel Heddle Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application Novembei- 16, 1946-, Serial N o. 710,265

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to heddles used 1n looms for the purpose of separating the warp ends into sheds for the passage of the shuttle therethrough to elfect the weaving operation.

This invention further relates to heddles of the type which are made from a thin iiat strip of metal or other suitable material, suitably punched, and formed to the desired shape.

Heretofore, heddles of the thin fiat metal type were mostly made by one of two methods. In one of these methods a relatively narrow strip was slotted at the place where the warp eye was to be formed, as well as at the places where the mortises for mounting the heddle on its supporting rods were to be formed. The slotted portions were then spread or extended, usually by swaging at the ends of the slots, to provide the warp eye and the mortises of the required sizes.

' In the other method of making the heddles, a wider strip was employed, preferably of the maximum width required in the finished heddle, and the warp eye and the mortises of the required size and shape were punched in the strip. However, heddles made in this manner, if left from end to end the full width of the stock from which they are formed, are too heavy for free manipulation in the looms, particularly in the modern looms which are operated at high speeds. For the purpose of lightening such heddles it was customary to reduce the width of the strip,`be tween the warp eyes and the mortises, by shearing the same the required amount on each side. This reduction in the width of each heddle intermediate the warp eye and the mortises was also rendered necessary, in those instances when the heddles were to be used in installations in which automatic drawing-in machines were used for entering the warp in the harness, to permit the necessary manipulation or twisting of the central portion of each heddle so that the needle of the drawing-in machine may pass freely through the warp eye.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a novel form of heddle made from a thin fiat strip of metal, kor other suitable material which is initially of the maximum width of the heddle throughout the length thereof.

A further object of the invention is to provide a heddle of the character aforesaid, in which the weight of the heddle is reduced in a novel manner.

A further object of the invention is to provide a heddle of the character aforesaid, in which the required finishing, for the removal of the burrs left by the shearing operation is materially re- 2 duced and which may be done more readily and eiiiciently.

A further object of the invention is to provide a heddle of the character aforesaid, in which the shoulders located adjacent the warp eye will be reduced in number and in angularity, to the end that there will be greater ease of the shedding and breakage of the warp will be greatly minimized.

The nature and characteristic features of the invention will be more readily understood from the following description, taken in connection With the accompanying drawing form part hereof, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of a heddle embodying the main features of the present invention; the same being shown in connection with the supporting bars which are shown in section yat the top and bottom; and Y Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a groupof heddles of the form shown in Fig. 1.

It should, of course, be understood that the description and drawing herein are .illustrative merely, and that various changes and modiiications may be made in the structure disclosed Without departing from the spirit of the invention. Referring to the drawing, each of the heddles there shown is made from a thin strip of metal or other suitable material, the stock being prefer ably of the full width of the finished heddle. Preferably, the finished heddle of the present invention is not expanded or spread in width at any place from end to end thereof as is customarily done in the manufacture of steel heddles of the kind most commonly used at this time.

The strip I0 is preferably punched to provide the usual central warp eye l l, the shank portions l2 of which may be bent or formed out of the main plane of a strip as illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing, although this is not absolutely essential.

The central portion of the heddle may also be provided with the usual keyhole slot i3 for engagement by the selector mechanism of the warp drawing-in machine, as it is believed that heddles made in accordance with the present invention will iind their greatest usefulness in installations in which the entering of the warp is accomplished by automatic drawing-in machines.

The strip I0 is also provided at each end with a mortise or slot I4 for mounting the linished heddle on the supporting bars or rods I5 and, when the heddles are to be used in installations in which warp drawing-in machines are employed of rentering the Warp, one of the side shanks I6, at each of the mortises, will be cut away at the side, as at I'I, so as to permit the heddles to pass freely from end to end on the heddle supporting rods I5, when said rods are supported in the heddle frame in a manner such, for example, as is shown in my previous Letters Patent No. 2,047,511 and No. 2,386,690, which will permit such freedom of movement of the heddles in their frames.

The strip ID from which the heddle is made is sheared away, but on one side only, from a point adjacent the central warp eye II to a point adjacent the mortise I4 at the upper or lower end thereof, as the case may be. This shearing away of a portion of the metal on one side will leave a narrow strip I8 extending from the warp eye to the mortise.

It will be noted that the portion which is sheared away above the warp eye I I is taken from one side of the strip, whereas, the portion which is sheared away below the warp eye is preferablyv taken from the other side of the strip. This will serve to maintain the heddle in better balance and also will distribute the strains more uniformly, particularly when the shedding takes place.

It will also be noted that the inclined shoulders I9, which result from the cutting away of the material of the strip above and below the central warp eye portion of the heddle, will be of greater longitudinal extent than is the case where the material is sheared away on both sides of the portions of the strip between the warp eye and the mortised ends of the heddles.

It will be found in practice that this will result in greater ease in the shedding action, and the tendency to break the warp, as the shedding takes place, will be considerably minimized. It will also be noted that, instead of having two definite shoulders, both above and below the warp eye, in the heddles made in accordance with the present invention, the shoulder eiect is definitely minimized by reason of the greater extent of the inclination at the ends of the warp eye portion where the metal is sheared away. Also, it will be noted that only one such elongated inclined edge will be located above and one below the warp eye.

In the making of heddles in accordance with this invention, the burrs which occur along the inner edges where the material is cut away may be readily removed in the heddle making machines.

It will also be seen that heddles of the character herein described may be more readily and inexpensively made than those in which the material is sheared from both sides of the strip, and that the edge portion, where the shearing takes place, will be reduced substantially to one-half the linear extent.

I claim:

1. A heddle for loom harness made from a strip of material initially of uniform width from end to end, a centralv warp eye in said strip, and mortises at each end thereof for mounting the heddle on the supporting rods in a harness frame, the strip being cut away above and below the warp eye, but on one side only at each location, said cut-away portions extending from the central portion in which the warp eye is located to points adjacent the end mortises, and the cut-out above the warp eye being on the opposite edge of the strip from that of the cut-out below the warp eye.

2. A heddle for loom harness comprising a strip of thin flat material, a central warp eye formed in said strip, and mortises at each end thereof for mounting the heddle on supporting rods in a harness frame, the strip being recessed on one side only above the warp eye and being recessed on the other side only below the warp eye, said recesses each extending from the central portion in which the warp eye is located to the end portion in which the mortise is located.

JOHN JACOB KAUFMANN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 569,149 Draper Oct. 6, 1896 644,371 Sewall Feb. 27, 1900 2,450,241 Kaufmann Sept. 28, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 17,684 Great Britain of 1908 

